


Home is where the Mate is.

by pseudofoucault333



Series: Fei writes for Tumblr [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha Derek, Awesome Cora, Cora & Isaac are Mates, Derek is a Good Alpha, F/M, Interfering Cora, M/M, Making Up, Mates Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Minor Cora Hale/Isaac Lahey, Minor Melissa McCall/Sheriff Stilinski, Minor Scott McCall/Kira Yukimura, Misunderstandings, Pining Derek, Student Stiles, University of California Berkeley, Werewolf Mates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-12
Updated: 2015-12-12
Packaged: 2018-05-06 06:18:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5406191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pseudofoucault333/pseuds/pseudofoucault333
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles has been keeping his distance while at college so as not to upset Derek when he has to leave, but it seems to have the opposite affect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home is where the Mate is.

It had been a while since Stiles had seen Derek, more because of the fact that he had been away at Berkeley. There was little if any chance for him to go back to Beacon Hills; even when he was done with his midterms and exams he was still hanging around Berkeley. Because he knew how painful it was for the Alpha for him to be around for so long only to have to leave again.

Admittedly that wasn’t easy especially when his Dad and Melissa were always nagging him to come back for all his breaks. He’d end up sitting in his apartment Skyping dinners with them and listening to Scott and Kira’s latest adventures in Chicago. It was great, but it wasn’t the same as actually being there. Overall he thought it was easier this way but after one email from Cora he knew that wasn’t true in the slightest.

Cora had gone to New York with Isaac, but still kept in touch with Derek, the siblings having a standing Skype date once a week or once a month in the least if one of them was busy with something. With her and Stiles it narrowed down to emails every so often as there was only so long he could handle her glaring at him for being away from Derek so long. The record was about three hours and that had only been because he’d ended up falling asleep and she’d had a date with Isaac.

The email content was three simple words that caused him to rake his fingers through his hair uneasily,

_‘Call me. Now.’_

Unfortunately he didn’t have a good enough excuse to put it off, he’d done all his readings and his next folklore Essay was sat on his hardrive waiting to be printed off or submitted closer to the due date. Knowing he was going to regret it, he grabbed his phone and made his way into the kitchen. Maybe if he kept himself busy her screaming at him wouldn’t hurt so much.

“Hi Cora…” he managed once she picked up though that was all before she was tearing into him. Cursing him for everything he was worth, about how the pack was falling apart and Derek seemed to be unable to focus on anything without him beside him. Despite how he’d tried to keep strong he knew that her playing the mate card was causing his heart to crack.

“I mean what the hell did you think you were doing? You know that wolves can’t be away from their mates for _that_ long!” Cora cursed, he could hear her pacing and only hoped that Isaac was there to calm her down when this was all over.

“Cora! Would you calm down and let me speak geez!” he cursed, finally managing to get her to shut up. “If he wanted me to come all he had to do was ask!”

“You do know this is Derek we’re talking about right? The guy who communicated with you solely via his eyebrows during your first year of knowing each other according to Scott. The guy who tried to leave the state after he heard about you and Malia. The guy who couldn’t verbalise his feelings even if his life depended on it. You know he would never ask you to go back just because he’s missing you, which is the reason the Pack called me to do an intervention on his behalf.” She said, the sound of her flopping down on her and Isaac’s couch barely registering in the background.

“If the pack wanted me back all _they_ had to do was say.” Stiles sighed.

“Scott’s been trying to get you to come back since your first thanksgiving. You’re as stubborn as he is Stilinski. You need to just go back and sort this mess out.” Cora groaned, a muffled voice on the other end probably Isaac hoping to ease her anxiety.

“Fine…I,fine! I’ll go back this weekend to work everything out, happy now?” Stiles asked pacing listlessly around his kitchen whatever task he’d been considering doing slipping his mind.

“I’ll be happier when I get a gushing phone call from Derek but for the time being this will have to do. I swear to god Stiles if you don’t turn up this weekend there will be hell to pay.” Cora quipped so sharply that Stiles could pretty much feel her glaring at him down the phone.

“Yes I’ll be there. Now I’ve got to go Cora…I’ll leave you and Isaac to your canoodling.” Stiles said, hanging up before he got bitched at about mentioning her love life.

He still paced a few times in the kitchen after setting his phone down on the counter and sighed as he took a deep breath before turning to his room to pack. If he managed to get it done early enough he might be able to make an early start and be in Beacon Hills by Lunch time if he was lucky.

XOX

The drive to Beacon Hills was pretty long and with only caffeine, his iPod and more Adderall than he would normally take to keep him entertained it was painful. All he could think of was the fact that Derek had been keeping his pain locked up for so long; all those emails and the odd Skype call they’d had, he’d been hiding the need to have Stiles in his bed or even something as simple as something smelling of him. If anything the thought of Derek only made him speed up a little on the highway, he just hoped Parrish or his Dad didn’t catch him on the speed trap outside town, which would be the last thing he needed.

When he stopped for gas outside the city limits he texted the pack that were still in Beacon Hills to let them know he was there, though he didn’t include his Alpha. He wanted to surprise him and have him all to himself, it really had been too long.

After dropping his bags off at his Dad and Melissa’s in case the reunion with Derek didn’t go as well as he was hoping, he started the drive towards the preserve. His phone had been chiming with messages from the pack asking if he was coming to their meeting or if he wanted to meet up while he was in town but pack priorities could wait for the time being. The only thing that couldn’t was Derek.

He drove up to the spot where the old burned out shell of the Hale house had once stood and had long since been replaced by something so much better. Derek had told him about his plans to knock it down and start fresh from the foundations in his first year, but that seemed like so long ago. The house stood in front of him was blindingly new, everything like a proper family or pack house was supposed to be, the size amazing and yet at the same time it looked like it had always belonged there.

He parked up on the drive and got out, knowing he was going to have to wait until someone came since he didn’t have a key and from the lack of Derek’s Prius he wasn’t in at the moment. It was kind of anticlimactic but he still made sure to text Cora to let her know he was there even if the rest of the pack probably would have thanked her multiple times by now.

He ended up sitting on the porch, taking in the view of the woods that he’d spent so long in as a teenager. All the fights and tribulations that he’d shared with the pack and yet none of it had seemed as important as when he and Derek had finally got together. How Derek had been patching him up after yet another fight, how he’d been wearing his scowly face and saying nothing. How as Stiles had been goading him into saying something _anything_ since he hated silence, the alpha had kissed him and made him lose his words. How his fingers had combed through Derek’s hair as he pulled him closer and heard Derek murmuring something about needing him to be safe in his ear. That was when it had started and he hadn’t ever looked back, though he’d obviously taken advantage of what he and Derek had had if what Cora was saying was anything to go by.

He sighed as he hugged his legs to his chest, looking up when he heard the sound of a door slamming closed. There looking like the breath taking Adonis he’d met all those years ago was Derek, dressed in stonewashed jeans and an olive green Henley that matched the one Stiles had stowed away in his closet in his apartment. He looked shocked to see Stiles there, his lips parted as though he didn’t know what to say but the one word he soon let slip was accompanied by that blinding smile he’d missed seeing in person so much.

“Stiles?”

“Hey Der…” he smiled, getting up from the porch and approaching the alpha.

“I didn’t know you were coming into town or I would have come home sooner…” Derek said, pulling him into a tight hug, his face buried in his mate’s neck as he let the scent of _home_ and _mine_ and _mate_ take over his senses.

“It was supposed to be a surprise.” Stiles murmured against his neck though he knew Derek heard him by the way his arms tightened around him like he didn’t want to ever let him go. The whole reason he’d been so against this in the first place, and yet the arms holding him felt like a home he couldn’t imagine being parted from.

“Come on, let’s go inside and you can tell me why the sudden visit.” Derek smiled, only pulling away after his wolf seemed to think he’d scent marked him enough and wrapping an arm around Stiles’ waist as he led the way in.

The inside of the house was decorated to Lydia’s standards so Stiles was sure she’d had something to do with it, the furniture dotted around made by Boyd’s business and the smell of cupcakes in the oven samplers from Erica’s. Everything about the house felt like a real home, the kind of home that Derek had deserved after all the pain that he’d been through.

“It’s amazing Derek.” He smiled as he watched Derek rummage around through some drawers looking for something.

“And this is your key. I was going to give you it the next time you came to town…it just ended up being longer than I expected.” Derek said softly, offering him a Triskele keychain with three keys on it.

“Thanks…though the whole me being away thing was kind of the reason I’m here.” Stiles said gently, taking the keys and pushing them into his pocket.

“Oh k…” Derek frowned, an expression that Stiles always hated; it looked so wrong on those handsome features. Yet he knew if he didn’t say it now not only would Cora slap him silly but he’d lose his nerve.

“Let’s have a seat yeah?” Stiles asked, sliding his fingers between Derek’s and leading the way towards the window seat that overlooked the front yard.

He left his fingers brush over Derek’s knuckles over the skin that had been healed so many times and itching to brush over the muscles of his arms and chest. It was like being overcome with everything after so long but he knew it wouldn’t be fair to keep putting it off.

“So, the reason I’m here is Cora called…she said that the pack thought you were missing me. Which I can understand…I’ve never been back since I left for college, but what I don’t understand is why you didn’t just say something to me. You know if you’d told me you missed me or wanted to see me I’d be there like a shot.” Stiles said, his gaze rested on their interlaced fingers.

“I told Cora it was nothing to do with her…” Derek huffed, though Stiles had been around him long enough to be able to speak his language and it was obvious he was avoiding the question.

“Derek…” he sighed, causing the elder male to offer a small smile.

“I thought it was what you wanted. To have the whole college experience, not the college experience where you’re called home every week because your mate misses you or the experience where I’m calling you multiple times a day to hear your voice.” Derek shrugged.

“Derek, c’mon you know me! My alpha and my pack will always come ahead of my education.” Stiles said, helplessly.

“And that’s why I didn’t say anything sooner. That’s not the way it’s supposed to work. You’re smart Stiles, you’re amazingly gifted when you set your mind on something. It wouldn’t be fair to interfere in that, I love you and I thought that was for the best.” Derek sighed.

“But all that means nothing if I don’t have the alpha I love in my life. Yes my life is split into two, but no matter what you think you do come first. And when I finish my degree I’m coming home.” Stiles said softly, brushing his fingertips against his Alpha’s stubbled cheek.

“…but you wanted to do your post grad, your masters, your doctorate.” Derek murmured, though he still leaned into the touch.

“That can wait. I’ve missed you so much.” Stiles smiled, pecking a kiss to Derek’s lips and finding himself sat in Derek’s Lap with the alpha deepening it like he’d been deprived of oxygen the whole time he was gone.

“I miss you too….you don’t smell right…” Derek gasped against his lips causing Stiles to grin as he dragged his bottom lip down Derek’s neck pointedly.

“Then I think you have some work to do don’t you?” he smirked, causing Derek to let out a low growl as he picked him up and carried him off to their room, kissing him hungrily the whole way.

Fin.


End file.
